....completly untested on oldworld. The first step would probably be to
build a kernel 2.4 (needed for devfs) which fits on a floppy, as we were
told that this is the only way to boot oldworlds without using
proprietary software.

Ok, let me know if I'm completely wrong, but I have an old LinuxPPC
(2KQ4) disc which will boot my 7600 and my parents iMac (rev. A) by
holding down the 'c' key like any other bootable mac CD. It uses
miboot/yaboot, and IMVHO, it beats floppys on an oldworld hands down.
;) Is this not an option? Or do we need proprietary software (i.e.,
Toast under MacOS) to burn a bootable image like this? I eagerly
await enlightenment. :^)